Virtual charter decision this afternoon

A proposed virtual charter school will find out today if a Wake judge will allow the school to open this fall, or send its application back to the State Board of Education for further review.

The North Carolina Virtual Academy, which would be run by the Virginia-based K12, Inc, had gotten final approval to open this fall from an administrative law judge that found the state education board goofed when it ignored the online-only school’s application.

Now, state education officials and attorneys for 89 of the state’s 115 school district are hoping that Wake Superior Judge Abe Jones will allow the state education officials to examine the school’s application. Virtual school education, where students learn from their home computers instead of in classrooms, have had mixed results and K12, Inc., the for-profit company contracted to run the North Carolina charter school, has been accused of putting profits over quality in other states where it runs publicly-funded charter schools.

Jones is expected to deliver his decision at 2:30 p.m. Reporter Sarah Ovaska will be tweeting his decision at @SarahOvaska or the Twitter hashtag #ncvirtual.